On May 28 at 6 p.m., a “Bring the hostages home” rally was held at the Greenfield common. Some of those gathered had Israeli flags, including one 83-year-old woman with a walker. An onlooker, a woman younger than 83, shouted “Genocide” relentlessly at the gathered crowd. The older woman shuffled with her walker to the younger to talk with her, and the younger woman struck the elder in her face so hard the elder hit the pavement, flat.

I don’t remember hearing that we, in Greenfield, are at war.

There are rallies and Palestinian flags on the town green every Saturday. I haven’t heard and very much hope there are no violent acts towards anyone participating.

Let’s agree and allow others their own opinions. Let’s not normalize violence or hate speech. Don’t hit people. Don’t hit an older disabled woman, ever. Don’t hit an older disabled woman (or person) who has a different opinion than you. Don’t hit an older, disabled, Jewish woman who is asking for people to come home from captivity (and wants the war to end, too). I think of this as a hate crime. It is now an infamous expression — it’s about the context.

A few months ago, I invited 10 parents of school-age children from three counties (Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin) into my home to talk about the antisemitism that their children had recently experienced. Seven of the incidents happened in the space of one week. Hate was becoming normalized. Many of these incidents — in Deerfield, Northampton, Amherst, Longmeadow and Wilbraham — were focused on Holocaust words or imagery. Children were forced into heiling Hitler, or watching others heil Hitler them, told a joke about Jews in the gas chamber, or watched another child draw Hitler, and when asked to stop, wouldn’t, to taunt the child who was offended. As far as the current war is concerned, some of the incidents involved bullying young children into taking a side or getting in a young child’s face when doing something physically challenging and yelling “Free Palestine” to rattle the child. Since the child who was rattled had just come out as Jewish to the group, and this child was the only one who was yelled at, I’m assuming that the child was targeted because he was Jewish. No mention of the war had happened before this incident.

Before we raise children to believe that yelling, targeting and heil Hitlering are OK so that they grow up to believe hitting someone who thinks or believes differently, or is of a different background, is OK, let’s figure out as a community how to keep our citizens safe, our elders cared for, and our kids compassionate. The statistics show that anti-Arab or Islamophobia also has risen, but I am aware of the anti-Jewish hate that has had a direct impact on me and my family, and my religious community, of which the 83-year-old woman is a part. Was this act on May 28 an unrelated assault, or can we see that the context — the rally, the rising antisemitism that can grow out of anti-Zionism, the anger about the horrific war and innocents killed, the yelling and the targeting of a person who was part of the rally — confirms that the act against the 83-year-old woman was a hate crime?

Can we teach each other not to erase or dehumanize each other? Can we hold not only different opinions, but hold opinions differently and not create or condone violence?

Where are these conversations happening in our communities? There are resources, but many are wondering what the will is to utilize those resources. Human In Common, an organization that has worked in schools and companies to teach ethical upstander and anti-bias training, is one example of a helpful resource. There are many local experts on teaching antisemitism awareness. Let our community help our community by utilizing the experts around us.

And most of all, let’s all take care of each other. We are not at war in Greenfield.

The irony is that at this very moment, there are daily rallies going on inside of Israel, led by the hostages’ families, to which at times tens of thousands are drawn, that are dedicated to both demanding a ceasefire and bringing the hostages home. The welfare of the innocent Israeli (and other nations’) hostages is inextricably linked to the welfare of innocent Palestinians. We too, here at home, are linked to each other’s well-being.

Jodi Falk lives in Greenfield.